Catching Up

So far it's been a great weekend as far as accomplishments, and it's only Sunday morning.  Warning . . . This could be a long post.  I'm waiting for bread to rise, and it's very cold right now in my old Maine house, so it might take a while.

I'm finally catching up on the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.  For some reason, I hit a wall with the corn bread, but I finally pushed on through, and it was delicious.  My husband said it was the best corn bread he'd ever had and that it was more like a corn "cake".  I've been trying to eat a Vegan diet, but after 7 or so months of being really good and really purist about it, I've somewhat fallen off the wagon, so now I'd say I'm more vegetarian than Vegan.  That worked out well for the corn bread, since it called for buttermilk, butter, and 3 eggs.  In the past, I would have replaced those with rice milk, Earth Balance, and Egg Replacer, but I just made it as is this time.  I did eliminate the bacon which sounded like it would have been wonderful.  I also didn't have a 10" pan, so I used a 9" which made it way too thick.  Because of that, I cooked it for way longer than the recipe called for, but I still ended up with some underdone spots.  (My husband likes underdone stuff, but I thought it was kind of gross.  Luckily, I can eat around that.)  The other thing I did differently was to just soak the cornmeal all day instead of overnight as the recipe called for.  I think that worked out fine, but the cornmeal probably could have been a bit more tender.  I made some chile (this was Vegan) to go with it.  Luckily, the kids didn't like the chili or the corn bread, so that'll make lunch for me almost all week.  We're having chili at my book club this week, so I think I'll make the corn bread again for that.

Then I also made the French Bread.  I totally spaced and added 1 1/2 cups water instead of the called for 3/4 cup.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Duh.  But in my defense, I don't know how I can keep a thought in my head with a full time job, four kids, and a husband who works nights.  Thankfully, I've learned enough from Bread Baker's Apprentice so far to know what the dough is supposed to look like, so I added a lot more flour.  Then I thought I'd better add a bit more yeast and salt.  The bread came out great.  It ended up being only slightly different from the Pain a l'Ancienne that I've been making ever since I got the first book.  It was slightly crustier and a bit less dense in the middle.  I'm going to have to make it one more time, since I don't feel like I really exactly followed the recipe with this one.  I still liked it a lot and I'm not sure which I like better - this or the Pain a l'Ancienne.  My husband liked the texture of the French Bread, but thought the flavor of the Pain a l'Ancienne was better.  Next time, I make the French Bread, I think I'll give the pate fermentee one more day in the fridge.  Ever since I bought the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I've been dying (okay maybe not dying, since I've had the book for about a year now, but excited at least) to make the epi shape.  I made two baguettes and one epi.  I thought my shaping was okay but will definitely need more practice.  Even the kids were impressed with it.

We took the bread and some other great snacks on a picnic last night to Portland's beautiful Eastern Prom park.  We didn't get there until almost 6, and even though it wasn't dark yet, the sun had moved on from the park, so it was cold, but we had a good time anyway.  The kids didn't eat too much, since they were busy playing on the playground, throwing around the football, and playing soccer, but my husband and I had a nice conversation.  Other than the main reason of wanting to spend some time with my family, I had two ulterior motives to wanting to go on a picnic.  I wanted to try out the quilt that I talked about in my last post.  I was in quite a quandary about it, as I think I mentioned because I didn't really want to ruin it with food and drink stains, but then again, I didn't want to never use it either.  I asked my 11 year old her advice, and she thought we should use it, and anyone who had drinks would just have to drink them somewhere else.  Made good sense to me.  (That and I compromised on white wine instead of red for us adults.)  I dropped a slow roasted tomato on it, but it's barely noticeable, and I supposed it's like a new car - you've gotta get that first scratch, so you can relax about it.  For snacks, we had the delicious slow roasted tomatoes that were just posted on Pinch My Salt (which also happens to be the inspiration for The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge) on top of some Maine goat cheese (wonderfully mild but not boring) on top of the homemade French Bread.  I made the tomatoes from some beautiful Sungolds that I picked up from the Farmer's Market along with some Maine garlic and bought the goat cheese from our cool, local Rosemont Market.  So good!

So now I'm waiting for the Focaccia to do it's final rise.  I just turned the oven on the preheat.  I can't wait for this one.  UPDATE:  Since this is such a long post, and my husband came down to chat, the focaccia is now done.  It is awesome!  I can't wait to make it again.  There are so many different possibilities with it.  I think I will try to make it pizza-style next time.  Once again, I didn't have the right size pans, so I divided it between a pie pan and a lasagne pan.  That seemed to work out fine.  I had plenty of extra slow-roasted tomatoes, so I added those to the pie pan size "loaf" as a pre-rise topping.  That worked out great.  (Another update - I couldn't get enough of the whole bread/goat cheese/slow roasted tomato thing, so I cut a piece of focaccia in half sandwich-wise, spread some goat cheese on top, threw some tomatoes on top of that and put it open-faced under the broiler.  Heavenly.  It's gonna take a miracle to go back to the Vegan diet now!)

Because I really hate to get the whole kitchen dirty for just one thing, I also made the English Muffins.  They were good enough and fun to make, but they really didn't have much hope for impressing anyone after the Focaccia.  One of these days, I'll have to make them again - alone.  My husband makes a mean breakfast sandwich which would be quite impressive with these babies.

Few.  So now I think I'm almost caught up with the BBA.  Italian Bread is next, and I think the only other one I skipped is the Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread.  I'll definitely have to do that for Thanksgiving.

Happy Baking!  (And eating.)

Comments

[Kary Gonyer]

Well, I found you through Pinch My Salt..so I am skimming along on your blog...Oh, NO ! Wait just a minute. Maine ! My FAVORITE place in the world !
I live in California BUT I am PRETENDING I live in Maine. My beloved Maine. Then, I see you like to bake bread. Me Too! LOVE IT ! Am on the BBA Challenge too. But I'm kinda out of order...oopps.THEN, I see the vegan thing. What ? Wait? Well, not vegan, but I am into my first week of vegetarian..and it's pretty tough sailing over here. My husband is a meat and potato guy...HUHHH?? O well,

I'll check back later.
Kary

[Kary Gonyer]

P.S. My best friend is on ETSY.

Julie Whitmore Pottery :-)

Kary

[Katie]

Thanks for commenting, Kary. I know isn't it hypocritical about the Vegan thing? I'm happy that I did it for 8 months, but I'm also happy to just be a vegetarian now - at least for a little while.

I checked out your friend's pottery. Very cool!

Hope you can get back to Maine sometime. I love it, too, but ask me again in February!